EU sits on sidelines as US and UK court China on climate

 

EU sits on sidelines as US and UK court China on climate

 

One of the reasons for EU sluggishness is that ‘Brussels is off in August.’

 

BY KARL MATHIESEN AND STUART LAU

September 5, 2021 1:00 am

https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-frans-timmermans-climate-action-fit-for-55-us-john-kerry-china-xie-zhenhua-alok-sharma-cop26/

 

While the United States and Britain ramp up efforts to wrestle with China on climate change, the EU's top climate envoy is largely missing in action.

 

Ahead of a crunch climate summit in Glasgow in November, U.S. climate envoy John Kerry — who concluded three days of talks with China on Friday — and U.K. COP26 President Alok Sharma are trying to convince Beijing to shift its stance on coal and to peak its emissions earlier than 2030 as currently planned.

 

"As the biggest emitter in the world, responsible for a quarter of all emissions, what China does on climate action absolutely matters," Sharma said as he flew to China on Sunday.

 

The EU's Executive Vice President and climate envoy Frans Timmermans, meanwhile, has not spoken to Chinese climate envoy Xie Zhenhua since June, according to an EU official. Kerry and Xie have reportedly spoken 18 times since they last met in person in April.

 

“Timmermans has the Fit for 55 portfolio to manage,” the official said, referring to the major package of climate legislation rolled out by the European Commission in July and which will be negotiated by EU countries and institutions this fall.

 

“I think you cannot weigh their efforts against each other because their job load is not the same. Kerry has no role in U.S. domestic climate policy," the official said, adding: “The other thing is, and you can criticize that as well, but Brussels is off in August.”

 

Timmermans has more travel planned in the coming months and has held teleconferences and face-to-face meetings with many global climate leaders throughout 2021, according to the official.

 

But to some, his level of engagement with the world's biggest polluters — most importantly, China — is worrying.

 

“I really hope the EU can play a more effective role in contributing to climate diplomacy vis-à-vis China, but at the moment it is just not happening," said Byford Tsang, an EU-China expert with the think tank E3G. "And I think it has a lot to do with the bilateral relationship.”

 

A Commission spokesperson said Timmermans and Xie were expected to speak again soon and that the Dutchman was "in regular contact with international partners and this will intensify further as we approach COP26, as the EU works to broker positive outcomes and showcase its Fit for 55 package as a concrete plan for cutting emissions and growing the economy."

 

"China will be an important player and that is reflected in [Timmermans'] work and our efforts across the Commission,” the spokesperson added.

 

Timmermans’ lack of communication with his Chinese counterpart coincides with diplomatic frost between Brussels and Beijing.

 

Strained relations

An initial plan for EU foreign ministers to discuss China in early September was derailed by more urgent events in Afghanistan. The Commission, hoping to secure an EU-China summit in the near future, is also aware of deep hesitation from the European Parliament over ramping up diplomacy with China, as some of its members are under Chinese sanctions — a retaliation for EU sanctions imposed over the crackdown on the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang.

 

On the level of member countries, a trilateral call between French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Chinese President Xi Jinping in April failed to yield much of a breakthrough.

 

The EU's slow legwork risks undermining its hand at the COP26 conference, some warn.

 

Draft Council conclusions, seen by POLITICO and which will give the Commission its negotiating mandate in Glasgow, are still being discussed among member countries and are only due to be finalized in early October.

 

In normal years, this might be plenty of time for the EU to establish its goals ahead of the November climate talks. But COP26, which is aiming to secure major new climate pledges from big polluters like China, will be largely defined by bilateral diplomacy done ahead of time.

 

Several core negotiating topics are also set to be discussed during a pre-COP ministerial in Milan, which starts on September 30 — a week before the EU is due to finalize its own position.

 

The EU let itself get distracted by its own climate success in passing a huge raft of legislation this summer, said Jennifer Tollman, also from E3G.

 

"They're just talking about how well they’re doing at home. And at a time when both Europe and the rest of the world is, I mean, occasionally quite literally burning, that’s an issue,” she said.